Speaking of popular music, i've been a little stuck on Public Service Broadcasting, a group out of London who takes audio clips from public announcements and makes songs around them. Reference this pretty great music video about the cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin.
As linked by Kelly AT today, here's an incredibly amusing and sadly accurate satirical (Onion) article concerning why some moms won't vaccinate their kids.
Two weird bits of synchronity regard aspics. i was skpying with Jack and Leslie last week when the topic of weird savory jellos came up; having blogged about this before, i was able to cringe in unison with them. Aspics also were mentioned in conversing with Rup and Bryan, in the theme of 'loaves' apparently popular in some parts of Europe (which we somehow reached when i referred to pimento cheese). While revisiting the jello wikipedia page, i noticed that Areoplane Jelly is a brand of gelatin based in Australia, so named as it's origin start coincided with that of aviation. They used to have some interesting native flavors like " Lilly Pilly, Quandong and Midjinberry ".
Leslie, i mentioned that automatic cake decorating videos are strangely fascinating (and hat tip to Kate B for that).
Leslie brought up issues with the current early 20-something male crowd and their apparent inability to sit up straight and not spread their legs over more than two seats. (And i can vouch for this; the few times i have lately taken the bus, a guy next to me is taking up as much space as possible while i'm trying to avoid being imposed upon. Ugh.) Apparently 'manspreading' is an issue on NY Subways to the point of there being an actual ad campaign telling dudes to stop taking up so much space when they sit.
Side tangent, there was a viral video last year called 'Shrinking Woman' by Lily Myers, which describes women 'having been taught accommodation', and that goes alongside Amy Cuddy's study of 'power poses', and how poses might influence our thinking about ourselves as well as others' impressions of us. Anyway.
In other news, the not-American unit of measurement 'stone' is equal to just over 14 lbs. Apparently, when i say i want to eat my weight in a particular food (as i sometimes claim regarding desserts or bbq), i need to eat 9 stones-worth.
It came up in conversation the other day that there are 25 known taste receptors for bitter flavors. <3
In honor of the fast-approaching Indian Republic Day, i'm linking this aptly named 'best chai ever' recipe . It's seriously really good; i've been looking for decent chai for a while, and finally decided that the appropriate spice level is probably not going to be found in a commercial blend. For reference, i made this with PG Tips tea (the blogger is right, you need a strong, inexpensive tea to stand up to the spices), and have successfully made both cows' milk and almond milk versions.
While we're on the topic of hot beverages, my brother and sister-in-law very kindly gifted me with a moka pot/stove top espresso maker for Christmas. i'd linked an easily-found aluminum version to my brother. However, he's an engineer, and his thought process was that when aluminum explodes it creates shrapnel. He didn't want to be responsible for that, so he tracked down a nicer steel version (steel just gives way when under too much pressure, so there would only be burn damage). Thanks, Nate!
He requested pictures, and since i think this is a really cool process anyway, here are some pictures of my new coffee toy.
Also, weirdly, apparently the world's first webcam was designed to show if the coffee pot outside of the Trojan Room, a computer room at the University of Cambridge, had coffee, so folks could avoid getting up to see. Efficient. Also, kinda amazing.
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